Martinez B, et al. – Researchers compared outcomes between those patients who complied with the Louisiana Emergency Response Network (LERN) communication center direction and those who did not. They recognized that compliance with the direction from a central communication center with real–time hospital capacity data yielded a 6–fold decrease in secondary transfer and a 3–fold decrease in mortality. The data thus suggested the importance of an organized statewide trauma network that routes patients to the appropriate facilities.

Methods

• This study included trauma patients directed by LERN from the field in 2014.
• The compliant group included patients who followed the LERN communication center direction.
• The noncompliant group comprised of patients brought to a hospital inconsistent with the LERN direction.
• Researchers used chi-square analysis to compare differences between groups and considered a p value of <0.05 statistically significant.

Results

• LERN directed 14,071 patients to a destination hospital during the study period.
• In 13,037 (92.7%) patients, prehospital providers were compliant with the LERN direction and in 1,034 (7.3%) patients, prehospital providers were noncompliant.
• Researchers identified fewer patients in the compliant group (570 of 13,037 [4.3%]) requiring transfer to a second hospital than in the noncompliant group (312 of 1,034 [30.2%]) (p < 0.01).
• The compliant group (81 of 13,037 [0.6%]) indicated lower mortality rate in comparison to the noncompliant group (21 of 1,034 [2.03%]) (p < 0.01).